Its a 2007 15" Macbook Pro. It doesnt have the perfect specs but I want to see what i can do to adjust and make Final Cut 7 more compatible with my macbook? It runs pretty slow and drops frames all the time even with just one or two effects on one clip.

If it helps, I also have some other major apps on my macbook, such as Reason 5, Studio One, Adobe Lightroom, VLC, some other 3rd party photo editing software and i also have a bunch of 3rd party audio plugins for my studio/production software, some movies and a little bit of .mov footage from shooting.

so how could i speed up the computer where final cut 7 can run efficiently??should i delete all those extra stuff and make my laptop a FCP7-centered computer? and should i get an external hard drive or would that not make much of a difference?

Its a 2007 15" Macbook Pro. It doesnt have the perfect specs but I want to see what i can do to adjust and make Final Cut 7 more compatible with my macbook? It runs pretty slow and drops frames all the time even with just one or two effects on one clip.

If it helps, I also have some other major apps on my macbook, such as Reason 5, Studio One, Adobe Lightroom, VLC, some other 3rd party photo editing software and i also have a bunch of 3rd party audio plugins for my studio/production software, some movies and a little bit of .mov footage from shooting.

so how could i speed up the computer where final cut 7 can run efficiently??should i delete all those extra stuff and make my laptop a FCP7-centered computer? and should i get an external hard drive or would that not make much of a difference?

Help would be appreciated thank you!!

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Core Duo MBP was introduced Feb 2006.
Core 2 Duo was first introduced later that year so your computer is not from 2007.

i Dont really know how to clear up space for my ram to achieve 2 gb. Doesnt that mean i should get rid of apps to clear up space for the ram?

And do you mean install a new TB hard drive? what if i just got an external drive?

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60D EOS can shoot up to 1080p videos. Those are more resource intensive than lower resolution videos such as standard resolution or 720p. Have you tried to edit lower resolution files?

As to external drive, the computer has Firewire 400 and USB 2. Not nearly as fast as internal. (Newest Macs have Thunderbolt, Firewire 800, and USB 3. For a single drive, they can be almost as fast as internal drives.)

have you tried transcoding every file in a project into prores? final cut pro 7 will never playback h.264 files smoothly on your machine.

you could get an internal harddrive with 1tb, but you should get an eternal firewire 400 (NOT usb 2.0) drive for your footage anyways - because you should seperate media & application files, if possible.

afaik your macbook supports up to 4gb of RAM. if this is the case get 4gb, (2x2gb simms) not 2. this should give you 3gb of workable ram, as final cut pro is a 32 bit application and thus doesn't support more RAM.

if all of that doesn't help, you could consider editing with proxy clips (fast low-res version of your footage, which can be replaced in the final render)

you're saying that fcp7 drops frames with effects on the clips - you did render them before viewing (cmd-r), did you?

Also, what do you mean by .mov files? Prores should be fine, but you also mention "typical SLR footage." That's usually h264, which FCP7 struggles with no matter how good your machine specs.

I agree with others that your computer is a little long in the tooth. If you're looking to do this as more than a hobby, then I'd recommend saving up for a new computer.

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How do i upgrade my ram? haha im not too much of an expert when it comes to macs or computers. I thought by clearing apps and other files you could clear up ram.

And i dont know how to explain typical .mov files.... I usually shoot with miscellaneous DSLR cameras so i dont know if footage for each camera is different. It usually pops out as H264 but i convert it with MPEG streamclip to prores 422 and it usually runs fine on FCP7, until i start adding effects and more clips to the timeline, thats when things get REALLY slow.

I do this kind of as a hobby... its a side job for me shooting and editing music videos and such. I cant really afford to upgrade my macbook, so is there anyway i can just downgrade my software or do some major cleaning to boost FCP7?

have you tried transcoding every file in a project into prores? final cut pro 7 will never playback h.264 files smoothly on your machine.

you could get an internal harddrive with 1tb, but you should get an eternal firewire 400 (NOT usb 2.0) drive for your footage anyways - because you should seperate media & application files, if possible.

afaik your macbook supports up to 4gb of RAM. if this is the case get 4gb, (2x2gb simms) not 2. this should give you 3gb of workable ram, as final cut pro is a 32 bit application and thus doesn't support more RAM.

if all of that doesn't help, you could consider editing with proxy clips (fast low-res version of your footage, which can be replaced in the final render)

you're saying that fcp7 drops frames with effects on the clips - you did render them before viewing (cmd-r), did you?

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Yes i use an application called MPEG Streamclip to transcode H264 into ProRes 422 (or convert? i dont know if im using the right term)

Thanks for the advice. So simply put, your telling me to buy a 1TB harddrive and replace it with the current one in my macbook? And if that doesnt work i should upgrade my ram instead? (i dont know how to upgrade ram haha)

Ill try to do the proxy clip method you told me.

And yes i do render, but everytime i render it renders for literally a second and the progress window just pops up and goes away immediately. So fast i cant even read what it says

60D EOS can shoot up to 1080p videos. Those are more resource intensive than lower resolution videos such as standard resolution or 720p. Have you tried to edit lower resolution files?

As to external drive, the computer has Firewire 400 and USB 2. Not nearly as fast as internal. (Newest Macs have Thunderbolt, Firewire 800, and USB 3. For a single drive, they can be almost as fast as internal drives.)

The computer has 1GB of RAM. As mentioned, you need to buy 2GB of RAM (2x 1GB chips for the specific computer) and install. However RAM for old computers that old might be hard to find.

As to harddrive, you can try to buy a 1TB or 750GB 7200rpm 2.5" drive, and install.

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Okay ill try to make my footage and convert it to 720P

But if that doesnt work is there any other software i can install that is compatible and would run smooth on my macbook? Like Adobe Premiere or something? Or maybe a older version of Final Cut?

The only other video editing software i have on my macbook is iMovie, but iMovie is alright when it comes to actually editing the footage and color correction but the transitions and other effects are limited because of the no plugins option, so Imovie cant cut it

How do i upgrade my ram? haha im not too much of an expert when it comes to macs or computers. I thought by clearing apps and other files you could clear up ram.

And i dont know how to explain typical .mov files.... I usually shoot with miscellaneous DSLR cameras so i dont know if footage for each camera is different. It usually pops out as H264 but i convert it with MPEG streamclip to prores 422 and it usually runs fine on FCP7, until i start adding effects and more clips to the timeline, thats when things get REALLY slow.

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To upgrade RAM you simply need to buy more RAM and I believe that version of the Macbook Pro has access under the battery. So you just pop the battery out, undo a few screws, and put the new RAM in. This should be the page you're looking for to buy:

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